YDF Greatest Hits: What is Gender Affirming Surgery? (with Loren Schechter, MD)

HAPPY PRIDE, FRIENDS! This week we are re-releasing an episode that makes us proud; when we interviewed the amazing Dr. Loren Schechter to learn about and discuss gender-affirming surgery. The conversation was as helpful and poignant last year as it is now, so we thought it would be smart to give it another go :)

In general, surgical interventions aim to "right a wrong". Maybe your appendix is acutely inflamed and infected and needs to come out. That's a "wrong." Maybe that "wrong" is that you were born with a cleft palate and your folks wanted it corrected for you so you could eat and breathe easy.

Maybe your assigned gender at birth doesn't match your gender identity. Maybe that is the "wrong" that surgery can attempt to make "right".

Sometimes fear is our response to being confronted with concepts we don't fully understand. That fear can beget big emotional reactions. Your Doctor Friends get it. That's why we brought on our friend, Dr. Loren Schechter, a wonderfully accomplished, experienced, and kind plastic surgeon who has been performing gender affirming surgery for the past 20+ years.

Dr. Schechter is currently the director of the Gender Affirming Surgery program at Rush University Medical Center, and the President-elect of the American Society of Gender Surgeons.

In this episode, Dr. Schechter educates us, and we leave with a better understanding of gender affirming care.

Key highlights in this episode include:

What is gender affirming surgery? What procedures are typically performed, and what are the indications?

How long has gender affirming surgery been around?

Other than the surgeon, who is on the healthcare team for someone undergoing gender affirming surgery?

Does insurance cover these procedures?

Do people ever regret their decision to have surgery?

What cool innovations are on the horizon in the field of gender affirming surgery?

Come on this awesome journey with us, friends! Let's all understand each other better. Happy Pride.

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